Fading Mobster Hits On Pal's Alibi

COLOMBO CAPO Greg Scarpa Sr., dying of AIDS in a faraway federal prison, has generously offered up a deathbed alibi for another member of his crime family.

Scarpa insists that all the blood spilled in the family's recent civil war was his idea, not capo Alphonse (Allie) Persico's. The feds say Persico was the focal point of the war but Scarpa says he's "a nobody."

Persico "was never earmarked to take on any position in the family at all," said Scarpa in documents filed by Persico, the last member of the tattered Colombo faction awaiting trial for mob-war crimes in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Persico's lawyers hope that testimony from Scarpa -- a man with more war kills (four, including a bystander) than any other gangster on either side -- will take their client off the hook for murders that took place while Persico was in jail.

The feds say Alphonse Persico was handpicked by his in prison for life father, Mafia boss Carmine (Junior) Persico, to take over when Alphonse got out of prison -- and was a central part of the bloody war that cost 11 lives.

In numerous indictments and trials, they say the war began when mobsters loyal to acting boss Victor (Little Vic) Orena opened fire on Scarpa as he drove near his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, home.

But Scarpa took total blame for the war in a one talk with an investigator for Alphonse Persico's lawyer, Barry Levin.

In court papers, Levin asked Judge Charles Sifton for permission to video-tape a deposition with Scarpa since doctors say he has less than a month to live and Alphonse Persico's trial isn't set to begin until the end of next month.

Scarpa's bloody bragging is good news for Alphonse Persico, but not for the feds.

Prosecutors Ellen Corcella and George Stamboulidis didn't seem happy about Levin's request in a brief appearance before Sifton last week. They questioned Scarpa's mental competence and argued that Scarpa may live at least six months.

Sifton indicated he was inclined to grant the request, but he agreed to allow prosecutors until today to file their objections to the move.

On Friday, prison officials told Gang Land that Searpa's weight was down to 116 pounds, and that he was lucid, relatively comfortable and happy - especially since his wife, Linda, was visiting him during the Memorial Day weekend.